Clik here to view.
Bayan time (20): busy week
Detail from The 'Sham performanceBusy week musically: on Tuesday I played two spots at Matthews Hall for the Topsham Town Fayre Musical Extravaganza (as backing for the singer-guitarist John 'Wafty'...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sidmouth to Beer - 'lite' version - #2
View Donkey Sanctuary to Beer in a larger mapContinued from Sidmouth to Beer - 'lite' version - #1.So I'd just looked at Berry Cliff and the undercliff below it. At this point, as you continue...
View ArticleDark Night of the Soul
Ola Gjeilo, Dark Night of the Soul, Phoenix ChorusA musicalrecommendation: Ola Gjeilo (just found via his piece The Ground on Classic FM). He's a Norwegian-born composer of a rather lyrical repertoire...
View ArticleDiamonds
Another musical recommendation, in case Ola Gjeilo was too normal. I just ran into Steam Powered Giraffe: a brilliant performance art group popular on the steampunk convention circuit. Their persona is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nelson gets a facelift
New signOld sign #1Old sign #2I can be a little unobservant at times. Because it's so high above street level, I hadn't taken a close look at the new sign for The Nelson (formerly the Lord Nelson Inn)...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Silver!
A pertinent poem found in the Internet Archive:SILVER WEDDINGThe silver moon is in the sky,The stars their silver light are shedding,Where silver meadows silent lie,That silver feet are softly...
View ArticleHoneybee
Another song from the aforementioned steampunk musical troupe Steam Powered Giraffe: Honeybee, a lovely piece of close harmony, of the kind whose seeming laidback effortlessness covers very tight...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Foulston's "Hindoo" chapel, Devonport
 Ker Street, from Devonshire & Cornwall illustrated (1832) Further to Seeking details: Devonport "Hindoo" Calvinist Chapel, I took myself to the Devon and Exeter Institution today to look at a...
View ArticleA Christmas Carol: a rationale
I'd normally save this topic until Christmas, but it seems too good to waste. Last Sunday's Independent carried an interesting news story:A Brazilian man recovering from a stroke has turned into a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Heritage Open Days
Just a quick reminder about this weekend: as part of the National Trust's annual Heritage Open Days events, a number of Devon venues will be open free of charge: historical locations not normally open...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The mysterious superfruit
Department of bizarre advertising. I'm sure I'm not the only one to wonder what's the faintly obscene-looking object in the omnipresent banner ad on Facebook for "This Superfruit Melts Fat". It leads...
View ArticleClik here to view.
At Osborne House
Osborne House - eastern entranceAfter many years of visiting the Isle of Wight, Clare and I finally visited Osborne House - Victoria and Albert's rural retreat. I've personally resisted it for years -...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Crossing to Cowes
View Larger MapIf you've visited Osborne House on foot and are going back to Newport, it makes a pleasant round trip to take the five-minute bus trip to East Cowes, take the chain ferry - the Cowes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Dean down under
Poster from www.nfsa.gov.auI previously mentioned the movie versions of Maxwell Gray's novel The Silence of Dean Maitland, but hadn't noticed the increasingly good documentation of Ken G Hall's 1934...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Victory
On 23rd September, we were passing through Portsmouth, and visited HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship, which is preserved in dry dock in Portsmouth Dockyard. Clare had never been here before, and I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thomas Randle elucidated
Further to Victory: for a long time I've had my doubts about one of the standard Topsham claims to fame, that one Thomas Randle (the spelling varies) was quartermaster aboard the HMS Victory at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The art of Shanklin Chine
Shanklin Chine is a coastal ravine on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, prettily-landscaped as a visitor attraction, and only a few hundred yards from the town of Shanklin. We visited it about...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Beer pump artwork
Beer pump labels are a fine little genre of miniature artwork. I was struck by a couple this week:Firstly, there was Tolchards "Devon Coast" (a pleasant hoppy beer made by Red Rock Brewery of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Coming soon: A Wren-Like Note
A few of my contacts know already, and others may have guessed, that I've been working been for some time on a biography of the Newport-born author Mary Gleed Tuttiett (1846-1923), who wrote under the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mysterious superfruit #2
More on the peculiar phenomenon of marketing dubious health products with images that have nothing to do with the product.The mysterious superfruit turned out to be a malformed hen's egg. Now it's this...
View Article